System and method for an automated validation system

ABSTRACT

An automated validation system validates whether a property of a policyholder receiving at least one insurance benefit is currently receiving remote monitoring services, as represented by the policyholder. The system includes an application server, a trusted third party server, and a business logic computer. The application server requests the trusted third party server to validate whether the property of the policyholder is presently receiving remote monitoring services from a service provider. A business logic computer can adjust the policyholder&#39;s insurance policy based on the received validation results.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application61/365,180 filed on Jul. 16, 2010, the entirety of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

In general, the invention relates to the field of validation systems andtheir use for determining insurance policy adjustments. Morespecifically, the invention relates to validating whether an insurancecompany's policyholders who are receiving certain insurance benefits asset forth in their insurance policies because of their use of remotemonitoring services in fact are presently receiving such services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Insurance companies generally offer benefits to policyholders whoseproperties are receiving monitoring services from a remote monitoringservice provider based on the reduction in the risk such servicesprovide. These benefits are typically defined in a policyholder'sinsurance policy, which are adjusted when there are changes to thebenefits the policyholder receives. One such benefit is premiumdiscounts, which can be as much as 20% of the non-discounted premium.However, recent underwriting reviews have determined that manypolicyholders who are receiving such benefits no longer receive remotemonitoring services, contrary to the information they had initiallyprovided to the insurance company. This is not surprising given thatmany policyholders cancel their remote monitoring services after theyobtain an insurance policy yet fail to timely inform the insurancecompany of such a cancellation. However, policyholders without suchremote monitoring services should not receive or continue to receive thebenefits because the risks associated with their properties are, infact, not reduced. Conversely, there are policyholders who have recentlyinstalled such a monitoring system and should, therefore, be givenappropriate benefits.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus, there exists a need for an efficient system that can repeatedlyvalidate whether a policyholder's property is currently being monitoredby a remote monitoring services provider so that an insurance companycan use such a system to determine an adjustment to the policyholder'sinsurance policy.

Additionally, because different policyholders may use different types ofremote monitoring services covering various aspects of his/her propertyto differing degrees, there also exists a need for a system that candetermine a policyholder's policy adjustment based on the type and scopeof coverage of the remote monitoring services the policyholder'sproperty is receiving.

Allowing policyholders to continue to receive benefits after they havecanceled their monitoring services reduces the incentive of thepolicyholders to continue their services with the service provider. Atthe same time, insurance companies and service providers generally donot want to share data with each other for various reasons, such as toprotect the privacy of their policyholders, to protect the value oftheir customer lists, etc. Therefore, there exists a further need for asecure validation system to allow an insurance company and serviceproviders to validate information provided by their respective customerswithout sharing each other's data or with a minimum amount of datasharing or exchange.

A system and method are disclosed herein for an automated validationsystem for repeatedly validating whether a property of a policyholderreceiving an insurance benefit is presently receiving remote monitoringservices as claimed by the policyholder.

The system comprises an application server in communication with atrusted third party server and a business logic computer. Theapplication server obtains information from a database information aboutat least one policyholder who is responsible for at least one propertycovered under a property insurance policy offered by an insurancecompany. A portion of the information indicates that the at least oneproperty of the at least one policyholder is receiving remote monitoringservices from a service provider. The application server requests thetrusted third party to validate whether the at least one property of theat least one policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoringservices from the service provider. The application server stores thevalidation results in the database. The business logic computerdetermines an insurance policy adjustment given to the at least onepolicyholder based, at least in part, on the validation results storedin the database.

In some embodiments, the validation results include information about atype and a scope of coverage of remote monitoring services that theproperty is receiving. The policy adjustment comprises one of a changeinsurability of the property, policy premium discount, deductible, anddividend. The system further comprises a communication interfaceconfigured to notify the policyholder of the policy adjustment via atleast one of mail, email, text messages, a web-based application, andtelephone calls. The business logic computer is hosted on a samecomputer system as the application server. Based at least in part on thevalidation results, the business logic computer can determine a monetarypenalty for the policyholder. The trusted third party server can preventthe insurance company and the service provider from exchanging theirrespective customer lists. The system further comprises a sensor datacollection system configured to receive sensor data associated with theremote monitoring services. The sensor data collection system cancommunicate with the application server. The application server alsocommunicates with an emergency service provider.

According to one aspect, the method comprises obtaining by anapplication server from a database information about at least onepolicyholder who is responsible for at least one property covered undera property insurance policy offered by an insurance company, wherein aportion of the information indicates that at least one property of theat least one policyholder is receiving remote monitoring services from aservice provider. The method also comprises requesting, by theapplication server, a trusted third party server to validate whether thepolicyholder is receiving remote monitoring services from the serviceprovider. The method further comprises storing by the application serverin the database validation results received from the trusted thirdparty. The method finally comprises determining by a business logiccomputer in communication with the application server an insurancepolicy adjustment given to the policyholder based at least in part onthe validation results stored in the database.

According to yet another aspect, the invention relates to anon-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executableinstructions, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processorto carry out the method and system functionality described above.

According to a further aspect, the system described above can validatewhether a policyholder of an insurance company is receiving remotemonitoring services without a trusted third party. The applicationserver can communicate with a service provider server directly toperform the validation without revealing the identity of thepolicyholder to the service provider. The application server storesvalidation results in an insurance company's database. In someembodiments, the application server requests from the service providerserver a hashed list of customers of the service provider who arereceiving remote monitoring services for their properties. Thevalidation results include at least a comparison between the hashed listof customers of the service provider and a hashed list of policyholdersof the insurance company presently receiving at least one insurancebenefit due to their usage of remote monitoring services for theirproperties.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The methods and systems may be better understood from the followingillustrative description with reference to the following drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of determining insurance premiumdiscounts according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a graphical user interface, in this instance, aweb page, suitable for obtaining information relevant to insurancepremium discounts, according to an illustrative embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a peer-to-peer architectural model of an automated validationsystem, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a client-server architectural model of an automated validationsystem, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a computer system used in FIGS. 3 and 4,according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an insurance scenario, according to anillustrative embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

To provide an overall understanding of the invention, certainillustrative embodiments will now be described, including a system andmethod for automated repeated validation of information provided by apolicyholder for determining insurance discounts. However, it will beunderstood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the systems andmethods described herein may be adapted and modified as is appropriatefor the application being addressed and that the systems and methodsdescribed herein may be employed in other suitable applications, andthat such other additions and modifications will not depart from thescope thereof.

A “property”, as used herein, may be any personal assets, orresidential, commercial, or public property and its associated buildingstructures and grounds. Examples of a property include, withoutlimitation, a home and its associated grounds, an apartment complex, acondominium building, an office building, aircrafts, boats, yachts, andships. A “policyholder”, as used herein, refers to both a potentialcustomer and a current customer of an insurance company.

Insurance companies offer various kinds of insurance benefits topolicyholders to encourage them to receive remote monitoring servicesfor their properties. Any change related to the policyholder's use ofremote monitoring services may trigger a change in the benefits that thepolicyholder receives, which may cause the insurance company to adjustthe policyholder's insurance policy. To simplify discussions, thefollowing descriptions are largely made in connection with adjustinginsurance policies by adjusting policy premium discounts offered topolicyholders based on information related to their use of remotemonitoring services.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method 100 of determining insurance premiumdiscounts according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. Themethod 100 begins with an insurance company determining a base insurancepremium for insuring a piece of property (step 102). The insurancecompany may determine a base premium based on information provided by apolicyholder and/or his/her insurance agent. Such information mayinclude public information, prior information, historical informationknown to the insurance company, and/or information obtained from athird-party about the property and/or the policyholder.

After determining a base premium, the insurance company determines aninitial discount for each policyholder (step 104). The discount in oneimplementation is a fixed discount. In another implementation, thediscount is a variable discount determined, for example, to be afraction of a particular coverage included in the policy, or a fractionof a premium associated with a corresponding peril covered by thepolicy, etc. Such a determination can be based on information submittedby a policyholder using forms available on a web page (see FIG. 2).Alternatively, or additionally, a policyholder and/or an insurance agentcan provide information to an insurance company via other forms ofcommunication, such as, without limitation, telephone calls, postalmail, or in-person communications. Examples of information that may beprovided by a policyholder for determining premium discounts areillustrated in FIG. 2 and may include, for example, identification of acentral monitoring service or the election of a policy that includesmultiple coverages, including, e.g., auto and homeowners and personalumbrella coverage.

Frequently, information which led to a policyholder's initial discountchanges. For example, a policyholder who obtained monitoring serviceswhen applied for a policy may cancel the services during the term of thepolicy. Accordingly, the insurance company, on a regular or irregularbasis, validates, or verifies, the information that led to the initialdiscounts. For example, the insurance company may validate theinformation daily, weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, at the end orbeginning of every insurance term, randomly, or intermittently. To doso, the insurance company receives validation results about itspolicyholders' use of remote monitoring services from either a serviceprovider or a trusted third party (step 106). Based on the receivedvalidation results, the insurance company determines if a policyholder'sinitial discount should be adjusted (step 108).

If the received validation results indicate that a policyholder's remotemonitoring services status has since changed, the insurance companyeither reduces or increases the policyholder's initial discounts basedon the change or other current information related to the policyholder'sremote monitoring services (step 110). A reduction of an initialdiscount could result in the insurance company withdrawing the discountcompletely, offering a lesser amount of discount, or imposing a monetarypenalty. A policyholder who was previously not offered any discount butis currently receiving monitoring services for his/her property may beawarded a premium discount. Once changes are determined, the insurancecompany updates data stored in its database to reflect these changes. Insome embodiments, once the monitoring services are canceled, theinsurance company also lowers a policyholder's coverage limit, asequipment, such as monitoring sensors, associated with the remotemonitoring services would no longer be covered, thereby reducing theinventory of goods covered under the policyholder's current policy.

After updating a policyholder's insurance premium or premium discount,the insurance company informs a policyholder of his/her updated premiumamount (step 114). The policyholder may be notified via email or via anonline account with the insurance company. In other implementations, toensure the receipt of the notification, the insurance company may notifythe policyholder of the change in premium or discount via a postal mail,email or SMS.

If the received validation results confirm the information previouslystored in the insurance company's database, a policyholder's initialdiscount remains unchanged for that validation cycle (step 116). In someembodiments, a policyholder can receive an additional discount forkeeping his/her information up to date with the insurance company.

In addition to indicating whether a policyholder is still receivingremote monitoring services, validation results may also includeinformation regarding, for example, the type of remote monitoringservices that a policyholder is presently receiving for his/her insuredproperty, which may also change from time to time. Different types ofremote monitoring services offer various kinds of security protection;some are of a higher security level than others, and some offer morecomprehensive protections than others. In addition, different servicesalso employ different kinds of technology, which offer different levelsof safety to the insured properties. For example, some remote monitoringservices for protecting against burglary use window alarms for detectingbreak-ins while other services use laser sensors implemented around thepremises of a property. Validation results that the insurance companyreceives may also include information about the technology used as partof a policyholder's remote monitoring services to allow the insurancecompany to better determine a policyholder's premium discount such thata policyholder with more advanced remote monitoring services ortechnology receives a greater discount than policyholders with lessadvanced remote monitoring services.

In some implementations, as mentioned above, the discount that apolicyholder receives may be a variable discount determined to be afraction of a premium associated with a corresponding peril covered bythe policy. Using a home owner's insurance as an example, apolicyholder's policy may cover perils such as theft. If apolicyholder's property is receiving active anti-theft remote monitoringservices for preventing insurance losses associated with theft, thepremium discount that the policyholder receives may be a fraction of theportion of the premium that the policyholder is paying for covering thetheft peril. Determining a discount based on potential insurance lossesthat a policyholder's remote monitoring service can prevent encouragesthe policyholder to continue with the same service, as the benefits ofhaving such a service are now more apparent to the policyholder. Otherperils that may be covered under a property insurance policy include,without limitation, fire, lightning, explosion/implosion, aircraftdamage, storm, flood, and landslide.

The discount may vary based on other factors, as well. For example, aninsurance company may determine a discount for a policyholder based onutilization data related to the policyholder's use of remote monitoringservices. Such data may indicate how frequently the policyholderactivates the monitoring system, conducts maintenance check-ups on thesystem, and/or any other information about how such services are beingutilized by the policyholder. This way, policyholders who morefrequently activate their monitoring systems, for example, receive agreater discount. An insurance company can obtain utilization datadirectly from a service provider or from a third-party data provider, orby driving from its internal system.

In addition to using information about the property's remote monitoringservices for determining a discount, an insurance company may also varya policyholder's discount based on information about the neighborhood inwhich a policyholder's property is located. Such neighborhoodinformation may include, for example, the neighborhood's crime rate,average income of all the households in the neighborhood, averageproperty value, and demographics of people residing in the neighborhood.Doing so allows the insurance company to more fairly assess potentialinsurance risks associated with a policyholder's property, which inturn, allows the insurance company to more fairly determine a policypremium, or premium discount, for the policyholder. For example, ahigh-crime neighborhood tends to have higher risks of burglary incomparison to a low-crime neighborhood. Therefore, for high-crimeneighborhoods, receipt of remote monitoring services may provide agreater benefit than receipt of such services in low-crimeneighborhoods. To encourage the use of remote monitoring services in ahigh-crime neighborhood, policyholders living in a high-crimeneighborhood with remote monitoring services may receive a greaterpremium discount than policyholders in a low-crime neighborhood. Inaddition, the discount may vary based on the number or percentage ofproperties in a neighborhood receiving monitoring services. A propertylocated in a neighborhood with a greater usage of remote monitoringservices receives a greater discount as this neighborhood characteristicfurther deters theft in the neighborhood. It also has the added benefitof encouraging further use of such services in the neighborhood,improving all residents' safety.

In some embodiments, an insurance company provides policyholdersbelonging to the same neighborhood, apartments building, condominiumsbuilding, or office building with information related to the use ofremote monitoring services in their neighborhood. For example,policyholders may receive information about the total number ofhouseholds or companies belonging to their neighborhood which arereceiving remote monitoring services for their properties. Thepolicyholders can receive such information via email, mail, or textmessages. The insurance company can also provide a social media websitewhere information about each neighborhood may be posted and shared amongpolicyholders living in the neighborhood. Each policyholder of aneighborhood can, for example, log onto his/her neighborhood's web pageon the social media website to view real-time information about the useof remote monitoring services of others living in the same neighborhood.In some embodiments, policyholders of different neighborhoods may alsoshare their information on the social media website. Offering such asocial media website allows policyholders to encourage one another touse remote monitoring services as doing so improves the overall safetyof their neighborhood, benefiting everyone in the neighborhood. Toprotect policyholders' privacy and identities, particularly thosewithout remote monitoring services, identifying information about eachpolicyholder is not revealed such that members, or policyholders, of thesocial media website can only communicate with one another virtuallyunless the members choose to reveal their identifying information.

Though the foregoing discussions are made in relation to offeringinsurance premium discounts to policyholders whose properties arereceiving remote monitoring services, an insurance company may offerother kinds of insurance benefits in addition to or in replacement of apremium discount. For example, in some instances, the insurance companymay offer to pay for or reimburse a portion of the cost associated withreceiving a remote monitoring service and any equipment or systemsneeded for the service. As another example, the insurance company maylower a policyholder's deductible, e.g., from 2% to 1.5%, or issuecredits, e.g., $100, to a policyholder's account with the insurancecompany that the policyholder may use to pay for insurance-relatedexpenses in the future. The details of an illustrative suitable systemand method for administering such payments are further described inco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/254,215, the entirety ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

If policyholders offered with such alternative forms of incentivescancel their remote monitoring services, the insurance company withdrawsits previous offer and/or impose an additional monetary penalty. Forexample, the insurance company may request the policyholder to repay thecost that the insurance company had paid initially for covering costsassociated with purchasing remote monitoring services and the associatedequipment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a graphical user interface, in this instance, aweb page 200, suitable for obtaining information relevant to insurancepremium discounts, according to an illustrative embodiment of theinvention. The web page 200 includes a series of questions, the answersto which may be used by a business logic computer for determining apolicyholder's initial discounts at step 104. Each policyholder mayreceive a web account with which he/she can provide relevant informationused for determining insurance premium discounts by the insurancecompany. In the case where a policyholder has selected “Yes” to thequestion “is your property currently receiving remote monitoringservices” on the web page 200, the policyholder may be prompted torespond to a list of additional questions specific to the monitoringservices. If the policyholder has selected “No” to the question, theinsurance company may inform the policyholder that discounts can bereceived if the property receives remote monitoring services, therebyencouraging the policyholder to obtain remote monitoring services forhis/her property. The insurance company may further indicate on the webpage 200 an estimate of discounts. The insurance company may alsoprovide to the policyholder a list of preferred remote monitoringservice providers and their contact information. The policyholder maythen contact the providers directly or be routed to a preferredprovider's website from the web page 200.

After selecting “Yes” to the question asking whether monitoring serviceis being provided, the policyholder may be asked to identify which ofthe listed service providers is providing the remote monitoring servicesto the policyholder's property. If “Other” has been selected, thepolicyholder may be given the option to provide the name of the serviceprovider. The insurance company may also request permission to obtaininformation from the service provider regarding the type and status ofthe monitoring service the policyholder's property has. If the usergrants the request, the insurance company periodically orintermittently, through an automated validation system, verifies whetherthe insured property is presently receiving the remote monitoringservices or any other information pertinent to the determination ofpremium discounts. For example, the insurance company can alsoperiodically or intermittently verify whether the type of monitoringservices that the insured property is receiving has changed since thelast validation cycle. This way, policyholders no longer need to updatethe information on file with the insurance company if it changes,because the stored information is updated automatically by the insurancecompany.

The insurance company may further ask the policyholder to grant itaccess to monitoring data. Monitoring data may be data collected byvarious sensors currently implemented as part of the remote monitoringsystem for detecting a variety of conditions of the property, including,without limitation, fire hazards, carbon monoxide levels, water leakage,break-ins, low temperatures, etc. Having real-time data transmitted tothe insurance company enables the insurance company to proactivelydetect, or identify a potential cause of loss and quickly eliminate thecause to prevent any damages from occurring, or mitigate a loss after ithas occurred. Emergency service providers (e.g., fire departments,hospitals, policy stations, plumbing companies, electricians, etc.) maybe contacted directly after a potential cause of loss is detected. Forexample, the real-time sensor data can indicate that pressure exerted ona water pipe has exceeded a threshold value and a potential rupture ofthe pipe may occur. As another example, the sensor data can indicatethat a gas stove was left on and is currently emitting carbon monoxide.Having access to the monitoring data can also assist the insurancecompany in determining and processing damage claims without having toinvolve the policyholder to contact the insurance company for on-sitedamage assessment. Other benefits and methods for having access tomonitored data are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,610,210 and 7,711,584,the entirety of which are herein incorporated by reference.

Using the web page 200, the insurance company may also ask thepolicyholder to select the type of sensor used in the remote monitoringsystem. For example, the service elected by the policyholder may includea water leakage sensor for detecting water leakage. Selection of onesensor is not mutually exclusive of the selection of another. Manyremote monitoring systems come with a variety of sensors installed onthe premises of a property for monitoring various aspects of theproperty. Such detailed information may be used by the insurancecompany's business logic computer to determine additional discounts thatthe policyholder may qualify for (step 106). For example, a policyholderwith both a burglary detector and a water leakage sensor may receive agreater insurance discount than a policyholder with only a burglarydetector, since the risks are lower for a property receiving morecomprehensive monitoring services. However, if the policyholder does notknow what type of sensor is used as part of the monitoring system, theinsurance company may, after receiving the policyholder's consent,request such sensor data be sent from a sensor data collection center,either directly or indirectly via a trusted third party.

The insurance company may also ask the policyholder if the policyholderwishes to use preferred emergency service providers to prevent ormitigate a loss when a repair or other preventive or remedial servicesare needed (e.g., to put out a fire, to eliminate a source of carbonmonoxide, to relieve water pressure in a pipe before rupture, or toremove standing water from a basement). A preferred service providerthat is not a public entity, e.g. a fire department, may also bereferred to as an in-network service provider in an insurance company'sprivate network. By selecting such an in-network or preferred emergencyservice provider, a policyholder may receive a greater discount as aresult than a policyholder who chose to use an out-of-network serviceprovider. Preferred emergency service providers may be contacteddirectly after detecting that a potential loss might occur or after anincident is detected. This way, potential hazards or losses may beeliminated before they mature into actual incidents. If an incident isnot averted, the service provider, by being timely notified of theincident, may be able to mitigate the potential losses associated withthe incident. Once an incident does occur, the policyholder may alsoavoid any hassles associated with finding emergency service providerscovered under an elected insurance policy. Since preferred emergencyservice providers have established business relationships with theinsurance company and/or the remote monitoring service providers, billsincurred by any emergency service provider may automatically be sent tothe insurance company, instead of the policyholder, who typically has tofile claims him/herself.

It should be noted that the questions listed on web page 200 may befilled out by a policyholder or the policyholder's insurance agent.Additionally, the listed questions are used only as examples ofinformation that may be relevant to an insurance company for determininginsurance premium discounts that a policyholder is eligible for. Sincean insurance company needs to validate information about itspolicyholders against information that a service provider may have aboutthese policyholders if they are also customers of the service provider,questions depicted on web page 200 may include or be made based onquestions that a remote monitoring service provider generally gives toits customers.

In some embodiments, questions depicted on web page 200 are delivered topolicyholders via mail, posed over the phone, or disseminated viaanother mode of communication. A policyholder can also return his/heranswers to these questions via mail, orally, or otherwise. Insurancepersonnel can update an insurance company's electronic database bystoring the answers.

FIG. 3 is a peer-to-peer architectural model of an automated validationsystem 300, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.The validation system 300 includes an insurance company's validationplatform 304, which supports an application 306. The validation platform304 may support additional applications provided by other entities. Theapplication 306 may also include a web application to support the webpage 200. The validation platform 304 and application 306 cancommunicate with the insurance company's database 302 using apeer-to-peer communication protocol. The database 302, validationplatform 304 and application 306 may be part of a computer system 500, adescription of which is provided below with respect to FIG. 5.Alternatively, or in addition, these components may be locatedseparately in different computer systems. The validation platform 304and application 306 are connected to a trusted third party 310, alsousing a peer-to-peer communication protocol. The trusted third party 310may be a computer system, such as a server, run by a third party companyfor processing data received between two relying parties, such as theinsurance company and one or more service providers. The trusted thirdparty 310 is connected to service provider 314 and service provider 318,also using a peer-to-peer communication protocol. Service provider 314and service provider 318 are also connected to a database 316 and 320respectively. The automated validation system 300 may be based on SecureMultiparty Computation/Communication (Secure MPC) to protect the privacyand anonymity of the insurance company's policyholders as well as thatof the customers of the service providers 314 and 318. Alternatively, orin addition, the insurance company's validation platform 304 maycommunicate directly with the service providers 314 and 318 withoutcommunicating through the trusted third party.

Validation platform 304 may utilize or combine any one of well-knownsoftware development platforms, open or closed, such as Microsoft .NET,Java, Adobe AIR, Steam, etc. Operating system platforms for supportingthe validation platform 304 may include: Microsoft Windows, Unix, MACOS, Solaris, IBM DB2, or any virtual machine operating system platforms.The platforms, applications, and operating systems may run on a computersystem 500, a server, or the like. The validation platform 304 mayinclude an Application Programming Interface, API, which would alloweasy plug-ins of other entities' applications to communicate withapplication 306. Databases 302, 316, and 320 may be any well-knownmemory or storage elements capable of retaining or storing electronicdata. Databases 302, 316, and 320 may also include databaseapplications, drivers, middleware, firmware, and/or operating systems toallow the retrieval and storing of data.

In operation, the application 306 may first query the database 302 for alist of policyholders who are currently receiving property insurancepremium discounts. The application 306 may then filter the list toidentify policyholders who are receiving discounts because theirproperties are receiving remote monitoring services. The application 306may further identify the names of the service providers for the list ofpolicyholders currently receiving insurance discounts, which may bebased on information previously submitted to the database 302 via webpage 200. Once the names of the service providers are identified, theapplication 306 provides the names of the service providers to thetrusted third party 310 who establishes communication with the computersystems of the identified service providers. To protect policyholders'privacy and their data security, the establishment of communication mayfollow protocols typically associated with a secure MPC system in whichdata to be transmitted and received are routed through a trusted thirdparty 310. A trusted third party 310 may compare the name of apolicyholder against names of all the service providers' customers todetermine if a match has been found. Once a match has been identified,the trusted third party 310 may obtain additional data about thatpolicyholder from the service provider and create validation results toreflect such a match and/or any other relevant information. By havingthe trusted party compare data received from the insurance company andthe service providers, the insurance company can avoid revealing theidentities and sensitive information of its policyholders to otherentities, as might be required by contract, law, or other constraints,while still allowing the insurance company to validate its storedinformation about its policyholders. Similarly, service providers alsobenefit from such a trusted system as their customers' data is alsoprotected and not shared with other parties or entities.

For policyholders who have been identified in the service providers'database 316 or 320, the trusted third party 310 requests from theservice providers their services status to determine whether they arepresently receiving remote monitoring services. In an alternativeembodiment, the service providers deliver their customers' currentservice status along with the initial customer list directly to thetrusted third party 310. Once the trusted third party 310 determinesthat the policyholders are indeed receiving the remote monitoringservices, validation results may be sent back to the application 306which may, in turn, provide the results back to the business logiccomputer of the insurance company for further processing.

If the trusted third party 310 determines that some of the insurancecompany's policyholders do not match any customers' names in the serviceproviders' databases, the trusted third party 310 may first approximatethe names of the policyholders to be within a predefined code distanceapart from the original names to determine alternate names that may bestored in the service providers' databases. The trusted third party 310may also store in its system a phonetic algorithm, such as Soundex, usedfor indexing names by sound, as pounced in English, so that differentversions of a name may be standardized or normalized. Other informationthat can aid in this process may include the policyholder's permanentmailing address, telephone number, or spousal name, if any, and/orsocial security number etc. After the approximation analysis, if thetrusted third party 310 is still unable to identify the policyholders inthe service providers' databases, the trusted third party 310 may flagthe policyholders as not receiving remote services and send the resultsback to the application 306.

In some embodiments, for a policyholder whose name does not match anycustomers of the service providers, as verified by the trusted thirdparty 310, the insurance company can request these policyholders to i)verify information stored in the database 302 to correct any errors intheir names and/or street addresses stored in the database 302, 316,and/or 330, and/or ii) provide proof of remote monitoring services, suchas bills received from the service provider. This way, the insurancecompany can avoid mistakenly withdrawing premium discounts offered tothese policyholders due to a computational error. If a policyholder hasdifferent information stored in the database 302, (e.g. the last namehas since changed), the insurance company may send the updated data tothe trusted third party 310 for re-validation.

In some instances, some of the policyholders no longer receive theremote monitoring services from the service providers 314 or 318.Accordingly, the service providers 314 and 318 may provide dataindicating termination of service of these policyholders to the trustedthird party. Before sending such data, the service providers 314 and 318may first determine the nature of the terminated service. In some cases,the policyholders' services may have been terminated because payment forthe services was past due for a predefined amount of time. In thosecases, data sent by the service providers 314 and 318 may reflect suchinformation so that the insurance company may, instead of withdrawingdiscounts from the insurance premiums, remind the policyholders that theremote monitoring services need to be reactivated for them to continueto receive the insurance discounts. It should be noted that there areother scenarios in which an unintentional temporary lapse of service canoccur and those scenarios should be handled differently from anintentional cancellation.

In instances where the cancellation of remote monitoring services wasintentional, the service providers 314 and 318 may provide data thatwould reflect such an intentional cancellation to trusted third party310. The trusted third party 310 may then embed such information in thevalidation results of that policyholder to the insurance company'sapplication 306. The application 306 may send data to the business logiccomputer for adjusting the insurance discounts accordingly. In someembodiments, the application 306 can generate automatic notifications tothe policyholders indicating that termination of monitoring serviceswill cause the withdrawal of premium discounts. The policyholders may begiven a predefined period of time to renew the monitoring services inorder to continue benefiting from the discounts. Alternatively, thepolicyholder may be given the option to provide proof of receiving themonitoring services in case such determination of terminated service wasincorrect or the policyholder has since changed service provider. Inother embodiments, the insurance company can simply withdraw thediscounts when the validation results reflect the termination ofservices.

In some scenarios, the service providers can provide the insurancecompany, via the trusted third party 310, with the date of terminationof the monitoring services for a given policyholder. Thus, theapplication 306 may further calculate discounts that were given to thepolicyholder when they were not in fact eligible. The insurance company306 can then retroactively bill the policyholders for the discounts thatwere incorrectly given to them. In other instances, the insurancecompany can also be given the information indicating hat thepolicyholders have either upgraded or downgraded the monitoringservices. For example, for the policyholders who have previouslysubmitted through the forms on web page 200 that the insured property isreceiving anti-burglary, water leakage, and fire detection monitoringservices, but has since changed the monitoring services to cover onlyanti-burglary, the insurance company can revoke some portions of theinitial discount, since the risks associated with the insured propertyhave increased due to the downgrade of monitoring services. As anotherexample, some policyholders may have upgraded their services to includeboth anti-burglary and carbon monoxide detection as opposed to onlyanti-burglary; the insurance company will, upon receiving suchinformation by the application 306, credit the policyholders additionaldiscounts for lowering their property's insurance risks.

After validating the stored information about policyholders who havebeen receiving property discounts, the application 306 may then generatea list of remaining policyholders who are not currently receiving thediscounts. The insurance company may then send the list to the trustedthird party 310 to identify policyholders who are eligible for discountsbut have not provided relevant information that would trigger thediscounts. In other words, to ensure that qualified policyholders arereceiving their eligible discounts, the application 306 may query thedatabase 302 for a list of policyholders without discounts. The trustedthird party 310 may perform the same analysis as mentioned before andreturn validation results to the application 306. If the identifiedpolicyholders without discounts do not exist in the service providers'databases 316 and 320, the insurance company may keep the insurancepremium at the same level. In some implementations, the application 306can remind the policyholder that receiving monitoring services for hisor her property will qualify him/her for premium discounts. If theidentified policyholders without discounts are customers of the serviceproviders, the business logic computer may update and apply theinsurance premiums accordingly. Finally, the application 306 maygenerate an automatic notice, delivered via email or postal mail, to thepolicyholder informing him or her of the discounts. Accordingly, namesand information of policyholders who are now identified as having themonitoring services may be indexed and stored among other policyholderswho are currently receiving discounts associated with propertymonitoring services.

It should be noted that additional trusted third parties or serviceproviders may be included in the validation system 300. As a simpleillustration, only two service providers and one trusted third party areillustrated in FIG. 3. The API of the validation platform 304 may alloweasy plug-ins of additional service providers' applications forcommunicating with the application 306. Alternatively, the insurancecompany, service providers, and trusted third party may identify anagreed-upon protocol for communicating among themselves, without usingan API. The validation system 300 may also be configured in such a wayto avoid future validation requests from the insurance's application306. That is, once a list of policyholders has been provided to thetrusted third party 310, no repeated requests for validation of thesepolicyholders are needed from the insurance company. In fact, onlychanges in the list of policyholders may be sent to the trusted thirdparty 310 (e.g., new policyholders, etc.). Similarly, the trusted thirdparty 310 may receive only changes in the customer list and/or accountstatus of existing customers of the service providers.

In alternative implementations, application 306 and service providers314 and 318 may communicate with each other directly, without using atrusted third party 310. In these implementations, the data comparisonand validation may be done by either a computer system of the insurancecompany or the service providers in such a way that information, ordata, about their respective customers is not shared among themselves ina fashion that would disclose private or proprietary information asdescribed further below.

FIG. 4 is a client-server architectural model of an automated validationsystem 400, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.The automated validation system 400 includes a validation platform 302,which hosts an application 306. Both the validation platform 304 andapplication 306 may be connected to a database 302 through a local areanetwork directly or through internet 402. The validation system 400 alsoincludes a trusted third party 310 and service providers 314 and 316.The service providers 314 and 318 are connected to databases 316 and 320respectively. Service provider systems 314 and 318 may link to databases316 and 320 through a local area network or the internet 402. Thevalidation system 400 also includes an insurance company 408 for hostingone or more applications related to determining insurance premiums, suchas the business logic application or system. Each component of thevalidation system 400 may also communicate with one another, directly orindirectly, through the internet 402. In some implementations, where thevalidation system 400 conforms to the standards and protocols of aSecure MPC system, the application 306 of the validation platform 304communicates with the service providers 314 and 318 respectively via thetrusted third party 310. The trusted third party 310 compares datareceived from both the insurance company and the service providers. Thetrusted third party 310 creates the validation results based on thecomparison data and sends the results to the insurance application 306.Various software and/or system level software and hardware componentsthat are suitable for the validation platform 304 are described abovewith respect to FIG. 3. The databases 302, 316, and 320 may be hosted bythe same physical storage elements, portions of which may be partitionedto allow the access of the application 306 and/or the service providers314 and 316. A detailed hardware description and examples of a databaseare provided in the description of FIG. 5.

As described with respect to FIG. 3, application 306 of the insurancecompany may request the trusted third party 310 to validate informationstored in its database 302. In particular, the application 306 may allowthe insurance company to communicate with the trusted third party tovalidate whether its insured properties are receiving monitoringservices as claimed by its policyholders. The application 306 may querythe insurance company's database 302 for a list of policyholders who arebenefiting from the discounts and may then identify names of the serviceproviders for providing the monitoring services to the policyholders'properties. The identified service providers who have applicationshosted on the validation platform 304 may return their customers' datato the trusted third party 310, which computes and returns thevalidation results to the insurance company. The validation results maybe received by the application 306 and processed by the business logiccomputer located either on the validation platform 304 or at theinsurance company 408. If the business logic computer is locatedremotely at the insurance company 408, the application 306 maycommunicate with the business logic computer via the internet. Dependingon the validation results, the insurance premium discounts may then bedetermined according to the method described with respect to FIG. 1.

In some implementations, instead of communicating with the serviceproviders 314 and 318 via the trusted third party 310, the application306 may communicate directly with the service providers 314 and 318. Toprotect the anonymity of the insurance company's policyholders, theinsurance company may hash the names of the policyholders whose accountstatus of the remote monitoring service is to be determined by theservice providers 314 and 318. Alternatively, or additionally, theinsurance company may also hash other identifying information about itspolicyholders, such as their permanent mailing addresses, socialsecurity card numbers, telephone numbers, and/or spousal names, if any.The validation platform may support shared one-way hash functions, suchas SHA-512, to allow both the application 306 and service providers 314and 318 to hash their customers name and/or street addresses using thesame hash function. For example, the application 306 may use a one-wayhash function to hash all the names of policyholders whose accountstatus is to be validated. The application 306 may send the hash valuesassociated with each policyholder and information about which hashfunction was used to the service providers 314 and 318. The serviceproviders 314 and 318 may then hash their customers using the same hashfunction and return their hash values to the application 306 forcomparison. To combat dictionary attack or other common attacksassociated with one-way hash functions, the insurance company mayfurther store a list of salt (strings used to randomize and increase thelength of data to be hashed) to be concatenated with the names, or otheridentifying information, of the policyholders to randomize the value tobe hashed. The salt could be, for example, binary strings (e.g., ASCIIcodes) for “Yes” and/or “No”. Alternatively, the insurance company mayuse information about the type of remote monitoring services that apolicyholder has elected for his/her property as the salt. This way, theinsurance company can verify whether the policyholders exist in thedatabase of a service provider without exposing the names or detailedinformation about its policyholders to the service provider. This canalso prevent hackers from intercepting their stored data.

In other implementations, policyholders who are also customers ofservice providers 314 and 318 may directly validate the account statusin accordance with the open standard OAuth, which allows users to granta third party site access to their information stored in another party'swebsite, such as a service provider's website. Such authorizationprotocols or standards have been generally used in the field of socialmedia. However, similar concepts can supplement or replace the existingsecure MPC models in which information received from two relying partiesare being accessed and processed by a trusted third party. To use OAuth,policyholders of the insurance company would need to establish an onlineaccount with both the insurance company and with the service providers.A policyholder may first log into his/her account with the insurancecompany. Subsequently, the policyholder may log into his/her accountwith the service provider 314. The insurance company can receive a tokenfrom the service providers' website after the policyholder hassuccessfully logged into the service provider's website. The token mayindicate to the insurance company that the policyholder indeed is anactive customer of the service provider. Once a communication session isestablished after the policyholder has logged onto both accounts, otherinformation stored in the service provider's databases 316 and 320 maybe shared with the insurance company's application 306, withoutproviding the insurance company direct access to the policyholder'saccount with the service providers, and vice versa.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a computer system 500 used in FIGS. 3 and 4for supporting various software applications or application platformssuch as the validation platform 304, according to an illustrativeembodiment of the invention. Computer system 500 comprises at least onecentral processing unit (CPU) 502, system memory 508, which includes atleast one random access memory (RAM) 510 and at least one read-onlymemory (ROM) 512, at least one network interface unit 504, aninput/output controller 506, and one or more data storage devices 514.All of these latter elements are in communication with the CPU 502 tofacilitate the operation of the computer system 500. The computer system500 may be configured in many different ways. For example, computersystem 500 may be a conventional standalone computer or alternatively,the function of computer system 500 may be distributed across multiplecomputer systems and architectures. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4,the computer system 500 is linked, via network 402 (also described inFIG. 4), to an insurance company computer system 408 which may house aportion of the business logic that may be called by the application 306for determining insurance premium discounts.

Computer system 500 may be configured in a distributed architecture,wherein databases and processors are housed in separate units orlocations. The computer system 500 may also be seen as a server locatedeither on site near the insurance company 408, or can be accessedremotely by the insurance company 408. Some such units perform primaryprocessing functions and contain at a minimum, a general controller or aprocessor 502 and a system memory 508. In such an embodiment, each ofthese units is attached via the network interface unit 504 to acommunications hub or port (not shown) that serves as a primarycommunication link with other servers, client or user computers andother related devices. The communications hub or port may have minimalprocessing capability itself, serving primarily as a communicationsrouter. A variety of communications protocols may be part of the system,including, but not limited to: Ethernet, SAP, SAS™, ATP, BLUETOOTH™, GSMand TCP/IP.

The CPU 502 comprises a processor, such as one or more conventionalmicroprocessors and one or more supplementary co-processors such as mathco-processors for offloading workload from the CPU 502. The CPU 502 isin communication with the network interface unit 504 and theinput/output controller 506, through which the CPU 502 communicates withother devices such as other servers, user terminals, or devices. Thenetwork interface unit 504 and/or the input/output controller 506 mayinclude multiple communication channels for simultaneous communicationwith, for example, other processors, servers or client terminals.Devices in communication with each other need not be continuallytransmitting to each other. On the contrary, such devices need only totransmit to each other as necessary, may actually refrain fromexchanging data most of the time, and may require several steps to beperformed to establish a communication link between the devices.

The CPU 502 is also in communication with the data storage device 514.The data storage device 514 may comprise an appropriate combination ofmagnetic, optical and/or semiconductor memory, and may include, forexample, RAM, ROM, flash drive, and/or an optical disc such as a compactdisc and/or a hard disk or drive. The CPU 502 and the data storagedevice 514 each may be, for example, located entirely within a singlecomputer or other computing device, or connected to each other by acommunication medium, such as a USB port, serial port cable, a coaxialcable, an Ethernet type cable, a telephone line, a radio frequencytransceiver or other similar wireless or wired medium or combination ofthe foregoing. For example, the CPU 502 may be connected to the datastorage device 514 via the network interface unit 504.

The data storage device 514 may store, for example, (i) an operatingsystem 516 for the computer system 500; (ii) one or more applications518 (e.g., computer program code and/or a computer program product)adapted to direct the CPU 502 in accordance with the present invention,and particularly in accordance with the processes described in detailwith regard to the CPU 502; and/or (iii) database(s) 520 adapted tostore information that may be utilized to store information required bythe program. In some embodiments, the database(s) 520 store(s)policyholder information such as information relevant to determining theinsurance premium discounts, base premium, property insurance complianceguidelines for one or more jurisdictions, policyholder policy provisionsfor one or more different types of insurance policies, claimsinformation, and/or prior records of the policyholder's property and thelike.

The operating system 516 and/or applications 518 may be stored, forexample, in a compressed, uncompiled and/or encrypted format, and mayinclude computer program code. The instructions of the program may beread into a main memory of the processor from a computer-readable mediumother than the data storage device 514, such as from the ROM 512 or fromthe RAM 510. While execution of sequences of instructions in the programcauses the processor 502 to perform the process steps described herein,hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with,software instructions for implementation of the processes of the presentinvention. Thus, embodiments of the present invention are not limited toany specific combination of hardware and software.

Suitable computer program code may be provided for performing numerousfunctions such as determining insurance premium discounts ofpolicyholders based on validation results associated with their remotemonitoring services. The program also may include program elements suchas an operating system, a database management system and “devicedrivers” that allow the processor to interface with computer peripheraldevices (e.g., a video display, a keyboard, a computer mouse, etc.) viathe input/output controller 506.

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anynon-transient medium that provides or participates in providinginstructions to the processor of the computing device (or any otherprocessor of a device described herein) for execution. Such a medium maytake many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media andvolatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical,magnetic, or opto-magnetic disks, such as memory. Volatile mediaincludes dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typicallyconstitutes the main memory. Common forms of computer-readable mediainclude, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any otheroptical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM or EEPROM (electronicallyerasable programmable read-only memory), a FLASH-EEPROM, any othermemory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer canread.

Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying oneor more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor 502 (orany other processor of a device described herein) for execution. Forexample, the instructions may initially be borne on a magnetic disk of aremote computer (not shown). The remote computer can load theinstructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over anEthernet connection, cable line, or even telephone line using a modem. Acommunications device local to a computing device (e.g., a server) canreceive the data on the respective communications line and place thedata on a system bus for the processor. The system bus carries the datato main memory, from which the processor retrieves and executes theinstructions. The instructions received by main memory may optionally bestored in memory either before or after execution by the processor. Inaddition, instructions may be received via a communication port aselectrical, electromagnetic or optical signals, which are exemplaryforms of wireless communications or data streams that carry varioustypes of information.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an insurance scenario 600, according toan illustrative embodiment of the invention. The insurance scenario 600comprises a network of properties, which includes a home 602, 604, and606, an apartment building 610, a condominium building 612, and anoffice building 614. The scenario 600 also includes a sensor datacollection center 620, an insurance company 622, and emergency serviceproviders 624 and 626. Homes 602, 604, and 606 are owned by separatefamilies. The apartment building 610, condominium building 612, andoffice building 614 are owned by a group of individuals or families,each of whom may be a policyholder of the insurance company 622. In someinstances, the buildings 610, 612, and 614 are managed by a centralizedmanagement company which insures the entire building, in addition to theinsurance purchased by the each unit's owner. The scenario 600 alsoincludes a sensor data collection office 620 for receiving sensor datagenerated by various sensors implemented on or near the premises ofmonitored properties. The collection office 620 may be owned by a remotemonitoring service provider. Alternatively, or in addition, thecollection office 620 may be co-owned by both a service provider and theinsurance company 622. The emergency service providers 624 and 626include companies, government entities (e.g., police station, firestation), hospitals, or individuals offering emergency services, such asfixing water leakage. The emergency service providers 624 and 626 may bepreferred providers of the insurance company 622. These providers mayhave electronic equipment or notification systems connected to acomputer system of insurance company 622 and/or the collection center620 for receiving real-time notification in case a policyholder is inneed of their services. Similarly, the insurance company 622 may beconnected directly or indirectly to the collection center 620 forreceiving and processing data received in real-time.

In the scenario 600, home 602 may be an insured property currentlyreceiving property insurance discounts, because it is receiving remotemonitoring services for detecting burglary. Similarly, the home 604 isanother insured property, but is not currently receiving any remotemonitoring services. The home 606 may be another insured propertyinsured by the insurance company 622. The remote monitoring services forthe home 606 may include: fire detection, carbon monoxide leveldetection, water leakage detection, and burglary detection. Since eachhome is receiving different monitoring coverage, each policyholder maybe offered a different insurance policy and premium. For example, theinsurance premium for the owner of the home 602 is $65/month, while thepremium for the owner of the home 604 is $80/month, the full amount, andowner of the home 606 is only paying $50/month, because the home 606 hasthe most comprehensive monitoring coverage. For homes 602 and 606,various sensors may be installed in and around the homes and datacollected using the sensors may be sent to the collection center 620automatically. It should be noted that types of sensors used for remotemonitoring are well known in the art. These sensors may detect, encodeand transmit data using various electromagnetic or acoustic waves, suchas, without limitation, radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultrasonicwaves, and the like. Sensors may repeatedly, intermittently, orcontinuously send the monitoring data to the collection center 620 overthe internet or wired connections. Alternatively, the data may be sentonly if an abnormality is detected.

In the scenario 600, the collection center 620 may also collect realtime data about the various aspects of the insured properties so thatthe insurance company 622 may use such data to determine damages, inaddition to verifying whether the policyholders are receiving themonitoring services. For example, the collection center may receivesensor data such as the pressure of the water in the pipe before thepipe burst, humidity surrounding the pipe, the amount of water that hasleaked as a result, and/or the like. The received data may also be usedby the insurance company 622 to determine which emergency serviceprovider to contact for preventing causes of loss, mitigating a loss, orrepair any resulting damage from a loss. Since the emergency serviceproviders 626 may be connected directly to the sensor data collectioncenter 620, the providers may be contacted in real time. Having suchsensor data may also assist the emergency service provider in assessingthe conditions and situation to more easily identify ways to eliminate acause of loss or to repair damages.

In buildings such as the apartment building 610, condominium building612, or the office building 614, sensors may be installed in eachindividual unit or office within the buildings. A central data collectormay also be installed inside the apartment building for collecting datareceived from each unit or office. Centralized data collectors may beimplemented on a per floor basis. There may also be servers that manageall the received data for an entire building. Such servers may alsohouse other information used by an on-site management office fortransmitting received data from each unit to the collection center 620.The server may further be connected to a database for indexing datacollected for each unit currently receiving monitoring services. One ormore units may use a different service provider for their monitoringservices. Therefore, each unit may also be indexed to includeinformation about the type of monitoring services as well as the name ofthe service provider. Finally, each sensor implemented in a unit maycommunicate with the collection center wirelessly or through wiredconnections.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The foregoingembodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects illustrative,rather than limiting of the invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An automated validation system for validating information used to determine insurance policy adjustments, comprising: an application server of an insurance company configured to: obtain from a database information about at least one current policyholder, at least one property of the at least one current policyholder being covered under a property insurance policy offered by the insurance company, wherein a portion of the information indicates that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is receiving remote monitoring services from a service provider, wherein the at least one property is one of a home and its associated grounds, an apartment complex, a condominium building and an office building, the remote monitoring services employing sensors for detecting one or more of fire hazards, carbon monoxide levels, water leakage, break-ins and low temperatures; validate on a repeated basis more frequently than a term of the property insurance policy and during the term of the property insurance policy, by a trusted third party server employing a secure peer-to-peer communication protocol, that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider, the trusted third party not being either the insurance company or the service provider, said validating occurring more frequently than the term of the property insurance policy, the trusted third party server further receiving policyholder data from the insurance company and customer data from the service provider and said validating being based on the received policyholder data and customer data without the trusted third party server providing policyholder data to the service provider, and wherein the service provider does not provide customer data of the service provider to the application server, the trusted third party server performing validating by comparing names of policyholders to names of customers of the service provider to identify matching names, identifying policyholder names not matching a name of any customer, approximating the names of the policyholders not matching a name of any customer to be within a predefined code distance apart from an original name of the current policyholder and comparing the approximated name with names of customers of the service provider; store in the database validation results received from the trusted third party server, and a business logic computer in communication with the application server configured to determine an insurance policy adjustment given to the at least one current policyholder, responsive to a determination based on the validation results and the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is either (i) not currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider or (ii) currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider different from the remote monitoring services indicated in the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, and responsive to a determination based on the validation results and the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider as indicated in the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, configured to determine that an insurance policy benefit provided to the policyholder remains unchanged.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the insurance policy adjustment comprises one of a change in insurability of the at least one property, policy premium discount, coverage limit, deductible, and dividend.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the validation results include information about a type of coverage of remote monitoring services the property is receiving, and wherein said business logic computer determines an adjustment to said insurance policy responsive to changes in said type of coverage of remote monitoring services provided in said validation results.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the validation results include information about the technology used as part of the policyholder's remote monitoring services.
 5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a communication interface configured to notify the at least one policyholder of the policy adjustment via at least one of mail, email, text messages, a web-based application, and telephone calls.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein a portion of the business logic computer is hosted on a same computer system as the application server.
 7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor data collection system configured to receive sensor data associated with the remote monitoring services, wherein the collection system is in communication with the application server.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server is in communication with an emergency service provider.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the business logic computer is configured to determine a monetary penalty for the at least one policyholder based at least in part on the validation results.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the validation results received from the trusted third party server further comprise a date of termination of monitoring services, and the business logic computer is further configured to generate a retroactive bill for premiums due from the date of termination.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the validation results received from the trusted third party server further comprise data indicative of an upgrade or downgrade in monitoring services, the insurance policy adjustment is a discount, and the business logic computer is further configured to change the discount responsive to the data indicative of an upgrade or downgrade in monitoring services.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the insurance policy adjustment is a discount, the validation results received from the trusted third party server comprise data indicative of a type of monitoring service which reduces a risk of a peril, and the business logic computer is further configured to determine the discount based on a fraction of a portion of a premium for covering the peril.
 13. The system of claim 1, wherein the validation results include utilization data indicative of the policyholder's use of said remote monitoring services.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the utilization data includes data indicative of how frequently the policyholder activates the monitoring services, and wherein said business logic computer adjusts a policy premium discount based on said data indicative of how frequently the policyholder activates the monitoring services.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the property is a home and its associated grounds.
 16. The system of claim 1, wherein said business logic computer is configured to further provide an additional discount to a policyholder for keeping the policyholder's monitoring information up to date with the insurance company.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein said business logic computer is configured to further provide a discount varying based on one of a number or percentage of properties in a neighborhood, in which the at least one property is located, receiving monitoring services, wherein a property located in a neighborhood with a greater usage of remote monitoring services receives a greater discount.
 18. The system of claim 1, wherein the trusted third party server further, responsive to receipt from the service provider of data reflecting an intentional cancellation, embeds data reflecting the intentional cancellation in the validation results of that policyholder provided to the application server.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the trusted third party server further, responsive to receipt from the service provider of data reflecting termination because payment for the monitoring services was past due for a predefined amount of time, embeds data reflecting the termination because payment for the monitoring services was past due for a predefined amount of time in the validation results of that policyholder provided to the application server, and wherein the application server is further configured to: (a) remind the policyholders that the remote monitoring services need to be reactivated for them to continue to receive the insurance discounts, responsive to receipt in the validation results data reflecting the termination because payment for the monitoring services was past due for a predefined amount of time; and (b) withdraw a discount provided to the policyholder, responsive to receipt of data reflecting the intentional cancellation in the validation results of the policyholder.
 20. A method for validating information used to determine insurance policy adjustments, comprising: obtaining by an application server of an insurance company from a database information about at least one current policyholder, at least one property of the at least one current policyholder covered under a property insurance policy offered by the insurance company, wherein a portion of the information indicates that at least one property of the at least one policyholder is receiving remote monitoring services from a service provider, wherein the at least one property is one of a home and its associated grounds, an apartment complex, a condominium building, and an office building, the remote monitoring services employing sensors for detecting one or more of fire hazards, carbon monoxide levels, water leakage, break-ins and low temperatures; validating, employing a secure peer-to-peer communication protocol, by a trusted third party server on a repeated basis more frequently than a term of the property insurance policy and during the term of the property insurance policy, that the at least one property of the at least one policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider, the trusted third party not being either the insurance company or the service provider, said validating occurring more frequently than the term of the property insurance policy, the trusted third party server further receiving policyholder data from the insurance company and customer data from the service provider and said validating being based on the received policyholder data and customer data without the trusted third party providing policyholder data to the service provider, and wherein the service provider does not provide customer data of the service provider to the application server, the trusted third party server performing validating by comparing names of policyholders to names of customers of the service provider to identify matching names, identifying policyholder names not matching a name of any customer, approximating the names of the policyholders not matching a name of any customer to be within a predefined code distance apart from an original name of the current policyholder and comparing the approximated name with names of customers of the service provider; storing by the application server in the database validation results received from the trusted third party server; and responsive to a determination based on the validation results and the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is either (i) not currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider or (ii) currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider different from the remote monitoring services indicated in the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, determining by a business logic computer in communication with the application server an insurance policy adjustment given to the at least one policyholder, and responsive to a determination based on the validation results and the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider as indicated in the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, determining by the business logic computer that an insurance policy benefit provided to the policyholder remains unchanged.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the insurance policy adjustment comprises one of a change in insurability of the at least one property, policy premium discount, coverage limit, deductible, and dividend.
 22. The method of claim 20, wherein the validation results include information about a type of coverage of remote monitoring services the property is receiving, and wherein an adjustment to said insurance policy is made in response to changes in said type of coverage of remote monitoring services provided in said validation results.
 23. The method of claim 20, further comprising notifying, by a communication interface, the at least one policyholder of the policy adjustment via at least one of mail, email, text messages, a web-based application, and telephone calls.
 24. The method of claim 20, further comprising hosting a portion of the business logic computer on a same computer system as the application server.
 25. The method of claim 20, further comprising receiving by a sensor data collection system sensor data associated with the remote monitoring services, wherein the collection system is in communication with the application server.
 26. The method of claim 20, further comprising establishing communication between the application server and an emergency service provider.
 27. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining by the business logic computer a monetary penalty for the at least one policyholder based at least in part on the validation results.
 28. A computerized system for validation, comprising: an application server of an insurance company configured to: obtain from a database information about at least one current policyholder, at least one property of the at least one current policyholder being covered under a property insurance policy offered by the insurance company, wherein a portion of the information indicates that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is receiving remote monitoring services from a service provider, wherein the at least one property is one of a home and its associated grounds, an apartment complex, a condominium building and an office building, the remote monitoring services employing sensors for detecting one or more of fire hazards, carbon monoxide levels, water leakage, break-ins and low temperatures; permit the at least one current policyholder to establish an online account with the insurance company; permit the at least one current policyholder to login to the online insurance company account; while the at least one current policyholder is simultaneously logged in to the online insurance company account and to an account with a computer system of the service provider, receive, by the application server, a token from the service provider system, the token indicative that the at least one current policyholder is an active customer of the service provider; establish a communication session between the application server and the service provider system and receive from the service provider system additional information indicative of services provided to the at least one current policyholder by the service provider; and store in the database validation results indicative of whether the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider, received from the at least one current policyholder account, and a business logic computer in communication with the application server configured to determine an insurance policy adjustment given to the at least one current policyholder, responsive to a determination based on the validation results and the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is either (i) not currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider or (ii) currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider different from the remote monitoring services indicated in the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, and responsive to a determination based on the validation results and the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services that the at least one property of the at least one current policyholder is currently receiving remote monitoring services from the service provider as indicated in the portion of the information indicating receipt of remote monitoring services, configured to determine that an insurance policy benefit provided to the policyholder remains unchanged.
 29. The system of claim 28, wherein the communication session employs a protocol that enables a third-party application to obtain limited access to an HTTP service.
 30. The system of claim 28, wherein the business logic computer is further configured to, responsive to determination of an insurance policy adjustment, generate an electronic message to the policyholder having data indicative of the insurance policy adjustment. 